Speculative Fiction: A Reading List
Speculative fiction, from Afrofuturism to Star Wars, offers students tools and methods for analyzing social movements, power structures, and utopian thinking.
Going Through TSA While Trans
The TSA’s Secure Flight Program, instituted in 2009, makes gender into an object of state surveillance.
The Alien Enemies Act: Annotated
Confused about the oft-mentioned Alien Enemies Act? This explainer, with links to free peer-reviewed scholarship, may help clear things up.
Joseph McCarthy in Wheeling, West Virginia: Annotated
Senator Joseph McCarthy built his reputation on fear-mongering, smear campaigns, and falsehoods about government employees and their associates.
A Purrrrfect Political Storm
Crazy cat ladies have come to dominate this election season. It’s hardly the first time.
The Shrewd Business Logic of Immigrant Cooks
Savvy observers, immigrant restaurateurs operate as amateur anthropologists who analyze their potential customers to determine how to best attract them.
Translating Corn
To most of the world, “corn” is “maize,” a word that comes from the Taíno mahizwas. Not for British colonists in North America, though.
Declaration of Conscience: Annotated
In June 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith criticized Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist campaigns. She was the first of his colleagues to challenge his Red Scare rhetoric.
On Drugs and Harm Reduction with Maia Szalavitz
Author of Undoing Drugs and NYT columnist Szalavitz talks history, science, media shifts, politics, and how the US might mitigate its overdose crisis.